Quarterly report Q1 2019

Bio-Works Technologies AB Quarterly report Q1 2019

Period 1 January – 31 March 2019 in brief

  • Net sales amounted to 602 (2 142) KSEK. The decrease is strongly linked to the accrual of individual large orders.
  • Order intake decreased to 922 (2 004) KSEK for the same reason.
  • The result in the first quarter was -10 390 (-7 333) KSEK
  • Earnings per share in the first quarter amounted to -0,54 (-0,38) SEK
  • Cash flow from operating activities amounted to -7 535 (-7 843) KSEK
  • Bank balances amounted to 46 350 (81 058) KSEK at the end of the period.

Significant events during the first quarter 2019

  • Implementation of the quality system, which has been updated to the ISO 9001: 2015 standard, was completed by January 31 and certification was received on March 11, 2019. For many pharmaceutical companies this is a prerequisite for our products to be used in their production.
  • The customer base increased by 23% during the quarter to 291 active customers, which can largely be attributed to growth in North America and Asia.
  • The company received its first upscaling order for WorkBeads ™ affimAb in March.
  • The focus of the entire organization is to build sales by maximizing customer visits, with a focus on those that are scaling up, and providing good technical argumentation for the products' function.
  • The commissioning of an upgraded Web shop that enables card payment, with the focus on being able to effectively sell to lab-scale customers.

Significant events after the end of the period, 31 mars 2019

  • During April a handful of customers in each region have continued to intensify their purchases for their scale-up activities.

Statement from the CEO

Dear shareholders,

We have embarked on 2019 with a very high level of activity in the field, with more customer meetings and more customers testing our products than ever before. The response from the customers is generally very positive in all our three regions, not least in North America and Asia. I have summarized the most important events during the first quarter of 2019 below.

Continued strong influx of new customers. Bio Works' strong increase in customer numbers continues during Q1 with a broadened customer base, primarily in North America and Asia. After the first quarter of 2019, the company had 291 active customers, compared to 236 customers at the preceding year-end. We also see a promising development among our customers who are in the scale-up and production phase, where after the first quarter we have 54 customers in scale-up phase and six customers in full production. Six customers are in late scale-up phase and are approaching full production. Among the customers who have reached full production is one producer of an FDA-approved drug with global sales and a customer who sells to the Asian market that is important for Bio-Works.

Good start for WorkBeads affimAb. During Q1 2019, the company received its first scale-up order for our Protein A based chromatographic media WorkBeads affimAb, launched in Q4 2018. The order value is more than 400 KSEK. Published data shows increased productivity and purity in production of antibodies. We expect WorkBeads affimAb to add significant growth over the next few years as we judge the demand to be large while the unit price is considerably higher, generally 5-10 times, than our other products. The development of the sales of WorkBeads affimAb during the year will be particularly exciting.

Enhanced business opportunity due to certification. Bio-Works has been certified according to ISO 2001: 2015 since March 2019. The certification radically strengthens the company's business opportunities, as many customers, especially in the US market, have been waiting for ISO certification to be able to include our products in their scale-up processes, and this has to some extent previously limited volume sales. Towards the end of the quarter, customer activity has increased in terms of purchasing larger volumes, an increase that has continued in April.

Current sales in the first quarter of 2019. The company's sales in Q1 were 602 K SEK, which is lower than the corresponding quarter of last year, but we still have great confidence that the full year 2019 will show good sales growth compared to 2018. The order flow is expected to continue to be relatively uneven, until it becomes independent of a small number of customers placing large orders.

Continued work according to plan. In 2019, we will continue to build the company according to the plan presented at the IPO. We see Asia and North America as increasingly important markets for future sales. It is also in these markets that we expect the highest growth in the coming years.

For Bio-Works, it is of great importance to gain early access in customers' projects, thereby ensuring that our products are integrated into production processes, which in turn creates a long-term lock-in effect, since the step of switching supplier late in scale-up or production is virtually unsurmountable, partly for regulatory reasons. With many customers using our products in full production phase, the company acquires a stable cash flow over time and can ensure a significant value for our shareholders.

We thank you for your trust and continue our work towards growth in 2019.

Uppsala 29 April, 2019

Mats Johnson,  CEO, Bio-Works Technologies AB

 

For further information,

Mats Johnson, CEO, telephone +46 70 516 53 37

Bio-Works Technologies AB (publ), Virdings allé 18, 754 50 Uppsala, Sweden

Tel: +46 8 562 674 30, Fax +46 8 124 513 29, email: info@bio-works.com

This information is such that Bio-Works Technologies AB (publ) is obliged to publish in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was provided by the persons named above for publication 2018-04-29 at 13:00

Read the full report in the downloadable pdf below

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